RATH: Diane Reeves has received just about all the accolades a jazz singer could. She’s been described as part of the great tradition that stretches through singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. But strict traditionalists might be taken aback by the music on her new album “Beautiful Life” which has Reeves sounding a lot more like a soul singer. One reason for that sound might be that this album has a lot of new collaborators.

REEVES: One of the main inspirations for this record was that I was listening to all these young jazz musicians. They were being greatly inspired by the music that I came up listening to, so I thought, wow, this is a good place to have a conversation. And so that’s why people like Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper, even Gregory Porter, Lelah Hathaway, all these musicians were a part of this record.

And I thought it would be very interesting to see, you know, where the music could go. And this whole project ended up being this great collaborative experience and experiment.